For years, journalists and academics have criticised the Gujarat model alleging that it has â€˜ignoredâ€™ the social sector. One of the most popular claims is how Gujarat has lagged behind in countering malnutrition. The aim of this article is to look at data points related to a few social indicators on the basis of which people have criticised the Gujarat story.

Gujarat fights, wins against malnutrition

A lot of people have quoted data from the National Family Health Survey III conducted in 2005-2006 and talked about high malnutrition in the State. Latest data from a CAG report on the ICDS which quotes data obtained from the Ministry of Child and Women Development shows how Gujarat in fact has been one of the best performing States when it came to countering malnutrition. A small comparison made in Table 1 shows how the performance of the BJP Governments was much better than the national average. Gujarat which had 70.69 per cent malnourished children in 2007 when the national average was 50.1 per cent has reduced it below the national average of 41.16 per cent to 38.77 per cent. The performance of some of the Congress-ruled States like Andhra Pradesh and Haryana on the other hand was dismal.

The percentage of live births where the mother received treatment at a Government or a private hospital increased from 52.5 per cent to 79.8 per cent. The all-India average increased in a higher proportion from 34.5 to 60.5, but Gujarat was at a high level especially in urban areas where the scope for increase had been exhausted (from 83.3 to 94 per cent).